Ok - so I've been researching like crazy, as we are trying to decide and "regular" school starts next week. Here's my question; I would like to run a scheduled day, with curr and set things for each day. Also, i may have times bult in that the children get to choose what they do. I would also like to build in periods to work on "life skills" (this is what we call things like washing hands, vacuuming, how to put the books on the bookshelf) and let the children join some groups like maybe scouts or taekwondo. The books I have seem to say this structure is not a good thing. Now, I have alot of things scheduled - because of some of our life situations, but I'm not OCD. However, I think the children would be happier if they knew ahead - today we do math for this long, but tomorrow is science so math will be shorter(or whatever). Am I odd wanting to do it this way?
I always thought kids did good with a schedule. I'd like to know what others think because I'm setting up a loose schedule for my child.
Yeah, I don't think I've ever read it was wrong...that's probably a matter of opinion. I am doing it that way, and I am ocd lol I read in the other post that your 1 son is autistic....I can't remember what's best for the disorder...schedules or not, but I would definitely do what's going to work best for him...that's the best part of homeschooling =]
We're scheduled. And I think having electives in a daily schedule is good. I think it's important to be willing to be somewhat flexible with your schedule, but we are very scheduled people here, and, frankly, I really think it would be chaos out the wazoo if we weren't! LOL
Books I have are mostly from the 70's and 80's. They don't way it's "wrong" but almost all the 'experts" in these books say they do as much as possible away from a schooltype environment (structured). Any thoughts on books written recently? Oh and autistic - like any other child - all particular to the child. You're right. Mine likes it ALOT (he may be ocd...lol).
I read this one http://www.amazon.com/Homeschooling-Take-Deep-Breath-This/dp/0972807152 first, then http://www.amazon.com/Home-Learning-Year-Homeschool-Curriculum/dp/0609805851 and I was settled.
No, you are not odd. What works best for your family is what's important. This year we will have a more structured schedule. My ds needs more structure to stay on track. However, we will not run our school like the PS system. We will change the schedule or break time if we have to.
That would drive me absolutely BONKERS!!! But if it works for you, sounds like a plan! You can always tweak it more as you go along!
This year, I just have one in K. My "structure" is that we have school in the morning. As the boys get older, have more activities, and have more "seatwork" (as Abeka calls it), I'll become more structured. I'm of the mind that you work until you're finished, taking breaks as necessary. I don't expect my kids to keep working on something they've already mastered just for the heck of it, so in that sense, there will never be structure.
This is our first year so i'm not sure how we're going to end up but we are going to start out with a schedule. Nothing too strict but we'll know which subjects we are going to be doing on which days. I'll see what works best first, second, third, etc.. and tweak that as we go along. I think without a schedule I would put things off and be a mess. I think my girls will like knowing what we are doing on each day also. I do love the fact that with HSing if there is something we NEED to do or just something we WANT to do instead of school work we can, so i'll certainly be relaxed enough to say, "we can do that later or tomorrow" I just think I need to say to myself " Ok, we need to start by this time and work on these subjects" Not to say some mornings we won't sleep in a little later, but I work second shift, so if I don't set an alarm and get moving i'll sleep til 10:00!!
We did the schedule thing the first year and it sort of worked. The next year it did not because of our workshops, it just didn't suit us. Today being the first day of our 3rd year we'll see how it goes. They have workshops that are at different parts of the day to contend with but we live closer than before so hopefully they can go to the school do their classes and come home and get some work done. My dh likes their school work done by 5 at the latest so they can work on P.E.
Definitely to each his own and some families might thrive or even need a schedule.....but having such a tight schedule just doesn't work for us. "Life" happens too often and we have to change it so much I prefer a loose general schedule. IMHO that is one reason we are homeschooling -so it doesn't have to look like ps 8:00- 8:50 Math 9:00- 9:50 Science...etc.
You bring up an excellent point and that is - homeschooling has changed as have the people invovled in it and the reasons they do it. I don't think the homeschool world has quite caught up yet - in fact I am not convinced that they know they are behind. I do like a schedule and I make one up every year but I give myself the option of using it or not based on what we have going on or how he feels. I can tell you that I've never really "stuck" to it and that it is more of a way to keep me organized than a set of conditions he must meet. My DS's favorite day is "Pick any 3 subjects" Day! :wink: I know what he's going to pick - Reading, Japanese, and History - but to him that is like a day off! Since I work at home and have 2 jobs in addition to my home-based business, there are days when I simply have no time to do certain subjects and this makes him feel like he's in control of his day. Generally speaking we do CORE subjects everyday and Language Arts 2-3x a week, but it seems like our CORE is growing as he gets older. And I don't really have a set start or end time - he begins after breakfast and ends when he has completed what was written on the board.
That's how I am, too. I have a "schedule", but it's fairly flexible. What the saying..."Blessed are the flexible, for they will not get bent out of shape", lol! Pick 3 Day! What an interesting concept! I think I like that!!! Yep! CORE subjects do seem to increase with age! AND they take longer to accomplish! Fortunately, the older child is more independent, so while it takes THEM longer, it actually takes you LESS time!
We definitely will have a schedule, and routine. We do anyways, so I think it will be somewhat easy to transition into schooling when the time comes (we start in 7 days!!!). I don't think it's weird or strange to have a schedule; I think you have to do whatever works for your family!
We've just started our third year and I'm finally starting to feel like I have an idea of what we are doing! We are relatively structured in our subjects. We do some subjects everyday, and split some subject up on different days. It takes them as long as it takes them. We don't schedule how long they have to do it, but how many pages they have to do. If we are running late and have afternoon plans, I try to get the three R's in first, and let the rest slide for a day. Usually we start around 9:00 and my 10 yr old who has the most to do, finishes around noon. My 7 year old usually finishes earlier, depending on how much he's dawdling. My 4 year old works on K level stuff if she's interested that day. I pretty much give her free reign to decide how much or little she wants to do at this stage. She usually wants the same kind of attention the older kids are getting so we do one or maybe two subjects until she decideds she's finished. So I would say we are flexibly scheduled, if that's a real concept? Edie
I like to have a schedule, but I am not good at following a strict time schedule. I have started using workboxes. Sue Patrick has a book about workboxes and a website, although I have found blogs that provide more of a description. Basically, I have 12 boxes for my 3rd grader & 9 for my K. Each night I put everything in them and then they work through them the next day. Some boxes they can do independently and some of them have Mom tags to come work with me. It has helped me to work fun things in besides the normal subjects. I would recommend googling Sue Patrick workboxes and looking at blogs as well as her website. She has a special needs child and that was her motivation for setting up this structure. I like it because the kids can clearly see how much they have to do. Honestly, I started it 2 weeks ago with 6 boxes to try it out and they LOVE it. As soon as they get up they begin. They also heard me say I was trying it out and my 3rd grade ds said we shouldn't try it out, but do it all the time. That says a lot to me!
We're very unstructured; in fact, this is our first year adding structure to the schedule, simply because we are finally at the 8 yo-paperwork-required age. But even so, our day is fairly unstructured. We have school in the morning, we sit in the living room and read or talk or sketch stuff out on the whiteboard or work on lapbooks. We'll spend some time various subjects, and we'll stick with them until the interest begins to wane or lunchtime comes around. I try to integrate various subjects in one - math and English into our studies about Greece - but mostly focus on the content of what we're learning and letting my 8 yo daughter lead. I dream about being an unschooler but I can't quite let myself go that much.
For the first 3 years we hsed I did the schedule this weekly!! I would get soooo frustrated with myself over not being able to keep to the schedule I nearly drove myself batty!!! My frustration ran over to the rest of the family. We live on a farm and there was always something interupting! The cows got out, the horse went down or wild dogs killed the chickens!! So this year I did 6 week curriculum schedules. Its based on topics not time and it seems to be working a lot better for us (I should say for me!!!) And if it takes longer than 6 weeks to finish or ds wants to go further on a topic, we can take longer. Just because that works for us doesn't mean it will work for everyone else. Nobody likes a shoe thats too tight!! Whatever fits is the best! Marty
